Fortnight

Sep 2002

Series of daily actions and temporary interventions over two weeks

For a two-week residency at Boréal Art/Nature Centre in La Minerve,
Québec, I performed a different activity or task (almost) every
day for the fortnight. The residency took place on a 100-acre wooded property
in the Laurentian Mountains north of Montreal. Formerly a farm, the land
and forest are still managed and tended, so domestic concerns and operational
rhythms intersect with natural ones.

Some
of the daily actions

Friday, 6 September:
MatchmakingAction: Choose a stone at random. Look for another stone of similar
shape and size. Each time you find a better mate for the original stone,
leave behind the previous match. I
started the day with a worn stone that had several flat sides. By the end of the day I had matched it with a somewhat flatter one
with rougher edges that one could imagine might have — in thousands of years — eventually
eroded to resemble the first.

Monday, 9 September:
PhotosynthesisI built an electronic circuit for installation in a tree trunk. The circuit
uses a solar panel and a column of green LEDs to indicate the amount of
sunlight shining on the tree. Suggesting the natural conversion of light
into energy through photosynthesis and the upward
movement of sap, it is a machine that reiterates the obvious.

Thursday, 12 SeptemberWith hunting season approaching, I decided to make a piece that would
be seen only by those approaching the woods with limited vision. Along
a deer path, I used yellow paint to highlight a number of tree branches
in order that, from a specific vantage point and with one eye closed,
they aligned to spell out the word "NO." On a nearby tree I added a primitive viewfinder to direct the view. Walking along with
more usual binocular vision, one probably wouldn't notice the intervention.

Wednesday, 18 SeptemberI carried around a large stone — a piece of local granite about the size
of a breadbox, weighing about 20 kg (ie. about 3 stone) -— everywhere
I went, while performing my usual daily activities.

Thursday-Friday,
19-20 September: The flood beforeIn an area once flooded by a beaver dam, I used blue surveyor's tape to
flag horizontal lines around the mature and dead trees that would have
been present during the flood. Together the broken lines suggested a continuing
horizontal, enabling one to imagine the now-overgrown area covered by
water. Due to the changing topography, the lines rose then fell in relation
to one's body as one descended into and re-emerged from the small valley.